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Human eye might be able to detect entangled photons

(credit: Flickr user Hullabaloon. ) One of the less satisfying aspects of modern physics is the increasing separation between the phenomena that we measure and the experimenter. We measure almost everything today indirectly. If we operate our lab safely, we never directly detect an electron—instead, that charge creates a tiny potential difference on an amplifier. The amplifier generates a larger current that might drive a coil that is attached to a needle on a dial. This level of indirection is the reality of modern physics. And the alternative—passing large currents through your body—is discouraged. Yet, the desire to really see what is going on is hard to resist. This has led to an interesting publication that proposes a way to detect quantum mechanical behavior directly with the human eye. Seeing single photons The behavior in question is entanglement. But before getting to that, let’s talk about the eye. The human visual system is a pretty poor instrument as far as optics go. The eye is actually pretty good; experiments have revealed that the rods in your eye are sensitive to single photons. The brain, however, is smart; rather than try to sort out all the noise associated with every single photon detection, it tells the rods and cones not to bother it until the light reaches a certain intensity. Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Human eye might be able to detect entangled photons

TeamViewer confirms number of hacked user accounts is “significant”

Enlarge It was a tough week for TeamViewer, a service that allows computer professionals and consumers to log into their computers from remote locations. For a little more than a month, a growing number of users have reported their accounts were accessed by criminals who used their highly privileged position to drain PayPal and bank accounts . Critics have speculated TeamViewer itself has fell victim to a breach that’s making the mass hacks possible. On Sunday, TeamViewer spokesman Axel Schmidt acknowledged to Ars that the number of takeovers was “significant,” but it continued to maintain that the compromises are the result of user passwords that were compromised through a cluster of recently exposed megabreaches involving more than 642 million passwords belonging to users of LinkedIn, MySpace, and other services. Ars spoke with Schmidt to get the latest. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation: Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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TeamViewer confirms number of hacked user accounts is “significant”

Apple Offers No Explanation for 7-Hour Outage

Apple services went offline for up to 7 hours Thursday — and the company has yet to offer an explanation. An anonymous reader writes: The outage affected the App Store, iTunes in the Cloud, Apple TV, Mail Drop, Find my iPhone, and Photos. During the outage, Apple responded to complaints on Twitter, “Thank you for the information. We’re aware of this issue and are investigating, ” Tech Times reports that the iCloud Music Library had also experienced an outage on Wednesday, and that just weeks ago Apple released an operating system update which bricked several iPad Pros. And yesterday Amazon also experienced a service outage. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Apple Offers No Explanation for 7-Hour Outage

US Army’s smart earplugs spare soldiers from loud noises

As you might imagine, soldiers can’t just use garden variety earplugs to protect their ears. It might tone down the sounds of explosions and gunshots, but it’ll also prevent them from hearing a crucial command or an enemy on the other side of a doorway. It’s less of an issue for the US Army these days, though. The military branch has been gradually rolling out a smart earplug, TCAPS (Tactical Communication and Protective System), that adapts to the audio realities of war. The smartphone-linked device softens louder noises, but amplifies quieter ones; if your squad leader needs to issue a command, you’ll hear it over the din of battle. It’s a relatively simple system, but it’s very flexible. Some versions link to a soldier’s existing communications, and it’ll play nicely with hearing aids . TCAPS is far from ubiquitous. Only 20, 000 of the earplugs are in the field, and it’s doubtful that every single person in the infantry will get one when they cost around $2, 000 a pop. However, it stands a relatively good shot of catching on. More than anything, the technology provides confidence — you know you’ll get crucial audio cues without going deaf. Source: NPR

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US Army’s smart earplugs spare soldiers from loud noises

How to Listen to and Delete Everything You’ve Ever Said to Google

Here’s a fun fact: Every time you do a voice search, Google records it. And if you’re an Android user, every time you say “Ok Google, ” the company records that, too. Don’t freak out, though, because Google lets you hear (and delete) these recordings. Here’s how. Read more…

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How to Listen to and Delete Everything You’ve Ever Said to Google

For the first time a country has invested heavily in space mining

Concept image of a harvester for Deep Space Industries. (credit: Deep Space Industries) Luxembourg, a small European country about the size of Rhode Island, wants to be the Silicon Valley of the space mining industry. The landlocked Grand Duchy announced Friday it was opening a €200 million ($225 million) line of credit for entrepreneurial space companies to set up their European headquarters within its borders. Luxembourg has already reached agreements with two US-based companies, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, to open offices in Luxembourg and conduct major research and development activities. “We intend to become the European center for asteroid mining,” said Étienne Schneider, deputy prime minister and minister of the economy, during a news conference Friday. The mining of space resources is a long bet. Although some deep-pocketed investors from Google and other companies have gotten behind Planetary Resources, and people like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have speculated that within a couple of decades most manufacturing and resource gathering will be done off Earth, there is precious little activity today. Humans have never visited an asteroid, and NASA is only just planning to launch its first robotic mission to visit and gather samples from an asteroid,  OSIRIS-REx , this summer. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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For the first time a country has invested heavily in space mining

Facebook Nixes Access To Chats Outside Of Messenger Walled Garden

Tom Mendelsohn, reporting for Ars Technica: Some smartphone users of Facebook are reporting that they’re no longer able to access their messages from the mobile site, and that they’re being directed towards the free content ad network’s dedicated Messenger app. Users of the regular Facebook mobile app were shunted over to Facebook Messenger to access their chats a while ago. Now, folk who access the service on their phone’s Web browsers, or via third-party apps such as Tinfoil or Metal, are beginning to find that they can no longer view their messages. Complaints are popping up from users who are being told by Facebook that “your conversations are moving to Messenger.” Some Android users are even finding themselves automatically redirected to the download link on the Google Play store when they try and view their messages on the mobile site. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Facebook Nixes Access To Chats Outside Of Messenger Walled Garden

Scientists Announce Plans For Synthetic Human Genomes

An anonymous reader writes: After it was reported three weeks ago that scientists have held a secret meeting to consider creating a synthetic human genome, the participants of that meeting have officially published their plans. They announced a plan to launch a project that would radically reduce the cost of synthesizing human genomes — a revolutionary development in biotechnology that could enable technicians to grow human organs for transplantation. The Washington Post reports: “The announcement, published Thursday in the journal Science, is the latest sign that biotechnology is going through a rapidly advancing but ethically fraught period. The promoters of synthetic genomes envision a project that would eventually be on the same scale as the Human Genome Project of the 1990s, which led to the sequencing of the first human genomes. The difference this time would be that, instead of ‘reading’ genetic codes, which is what sequencing does, the scientists would be ‘writing’ them. They have dubbed this the ‘Genome Project-write.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Scientists Announce Plans For Synthetic Human Genomes

Wal-Mart Says It Is 6-9 Months From Using Drones To Check Warehouse Inventory

Multinational retail corporation Wal-mart announced on Thursday that it is six to nine months from starting to use drones to check warehouse inventories in the United States. The drones, which are capable of operating on autopilot, fly through the aisles snapping 30 images a second, and deliver real-time data to employees about whether the correct product is shelved in the proper place. From a Reuters report: Finding ways to more efficiently warehouse, transport and deliver goods to customers has taken on new importance for Wal-Mart as it deals with wages costs while seeking to beat back price competition and boost online sales. Wal-Mart said the camera and technology on top of the drones have been custom-built for the retailer. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Wal-Mart Says It Is 6-9 Months From Using Drones To Check Warehouse Inventory

Musk’s remarks at conference imply Tesla has huge autonomous car advantage

(credit: Mashable) On Wednesday night Elon Musk grandly told audiences at the Code 2016 conference that we might be living in a simulated universe . That comment has certainly sparked attention, but he said something else that’s still got us scratching our collective head: when asked about self-driving cars, Musk said that he considers it a “solved problem,” and that “we are probably less than two years away” from safe autonomous driving. This timeline is consistent with one that he gave Ars in 2015, but the head-scratchy bit is that every other expert we’ve spoken to thinks true self-driving cars (Level 4 autonomy according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) are at least a decade out. NHTSA defines a level 4 autonomous car as one that “is designed to perform all safety-critical driving functions and monitor roadway conditions for an entire trip. Such a design anticipates that the driver will provide destination or navigation input, but is not expected to be available for control at any time during the trip. This includes both occupied and unoccupied vehicles.” Even Google’s experimental self-driving cars are classed as Level 3 by the agency. Autonomous driving experts we’ve consulted at Audi , BMW , Ford , Mercedes, and Volvo (all of which have extremely active self-driving research programs) have consistently told us the same thing: it’s comparatively easy to make a car drive itself on a highway where every car is going the same direction and there’s no pedestrian traffic. But a car that can drive itself through a busy urban interchange—think Manhattan or Mumbai at rush hour—is closer to 2030 than 2020. Even sensor OEM Mobileye, which supplies Tesla with some of its autopilot hardware , won’t have its Level 3-ready EyeQ5 system on a chip ready until 2020. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Musk’s remarks at conference imply Tesla has huge autonomous car advantage